BY JEFFREY PALMER, UNITED STATES CORRESPONDENT
Björk: Cornucopia
Chase Center, San Francisco, California, 5 February
Björk is one of those artists who emerge once in a generation. Known for her sophisticated musicality, powerful vocals, and fiercely childlike demeanor, she has influenced an impressive number of musicians representing genres that span from classical to hip hop. Whether you love her or hate her, it cannot be denied that she is an artistic force to be reckoned with.
When I was given the opportunity to attend a performance of her lauded Cornucopia concert tour in San Francisco, I happily left the drear of Brooklyn in February and took a flight out west to the “City by the Bay” (which also happens to be the city in which I was born) without hesitation.
Björk’s Cornucopia era began before the COVID-19 pandemic with a residency at The Shed in New York City in the spring of 2019. Her most elaborate concert experience to date, Cornucopia draws heavily on material from her latest album, 2017’s Utopia, and features performances from the Icelandic flute septet Viibra, percussionist Manu Delago, harpist Katie Buckley, Bergur Þórisson on electronics, and an 18-person choir. Directed by Lucrecia Martel, Björk herself has described Cornucopia as “digital theatre” and a “sci-fi pop concert” with its use of stunning visual projections and elaborate staging.
To fully understand Cornucopia, one must have some understanding of Björk’s two most recent studio albums. 2015’s Vulnicura was a tragically beautiful ode to her break-up with her romantic partner Matthew Barney, with whom she shares a daughter. 2017’s Utopia shows a far more hopeful Björk painting a vision for the future that includes plant-bird hybrid creatures, a spiritual synchronicity between nature and technology, and a copious number of flutes. It is this journey from heartbreak and despair to the resolve to create a new and more beautiful world that Björk so masterfully highlights in Cornucopia.
All of this brings me to evening of 5 February 2022 at San Francisco’s beautiful new Chase Center in the Mission Bay neighbourhood. After a break due to the pandemic, Björk was fresh from her first Cornucopia performances in over two years at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The eclectic Bay Area crowd was poised to receive her with open arms and hearts.
As the stadium lights dimmed, the LA-based choir Tonality (all clad in white) filed on to the stage to open the concert with a vocalise arrangement that transitioned into a lament on humanity’s greed and disregard for the natural world. This led to a stunning visual projection of Björk draped across a boulder with a great gash in her chest singing the final portion of the song Family from Vulnicura. The gash was eventually transformed into a portal from which light and dazzling colour emerged, and we saw Björk herself walk slowly from behind the projection towards the front of the stage as she began to sing The Gate from Utopia. “My healed chest wound, transformed into a gate. Where I receive love from. Where I give love from.” The journey had commenced.
Dressed in a Noir Kei Ninomiya ensemble that resembled a beige and lavender body suit covered in giant cotton balls, Björk dazzled with her crystalline vocals, surrounded by visual projections resembling blossoming flowers, sea anemone, harp strings, and angelic beings. All the musicians on stage were in top form, and it was quite clear that this group had created a musical groove into which each member fit perfectly.
In addition to the elaborate opening number, highlights of the concert included a stripped-down version of Venus as a Boy from her 1993 album Debut, with only voice and flute; dynamic renditions of Hidden Place from 2001’s Vespertine, sung a cappella with Tonality; and Mouth’s Cradle from 2004’s Medúlla, featuring a virtuosic performance from Manu Delago on drums.
The audience was stirred into an ecstatic frenzy when the stage was flooded in green light as Björk sang her heart out during her much-beloved Isobel, an ode to a girl living alone in the forest “married to herself”, from her 1995 album Post; and Sue Me, a playful albeit dark track from Utopia basically telling Matthew Barney that he can sue her all he wants, but that she is still going to do what is best for their daughter.
A particularly special moment in the concert occurred during Blissing Me from Utopia, during which the entrancingly talented serpentwithfeet joined Björk on stage. The playful dynamic between these two was incredibly charming (with Björk even giggling a few times whilst singing), and the gorgeous harmony of their voices together was nothing short of earth-shattering.
Björk spoke little during the performance, with most of her comments coming right before her two encores. She remarked that she had many good memories of being in San Francisco and that she was a bit emotional being back here. Björk, now clad in another whimsical Noir Kei Ninomiya outfit that made her look like a cross between a valkyrie and a pixie, had us in the palm of her hand.
For her encores, she performed the gorgeously lullaby-like final track from Utopia entitled Future Forever, as well as the pulsating Notget from Vulnicura. A frenzy of beats and whirling visuals, the power and sincerity of Björk’s voice unequivocally remained the focal point throughout her final number.
Long after Björk left the stage, the final words of Notget, repeated like a mantra several times at the end of the song, remained with me as I walked the deserted streets of Mission Bay. I noticed the yellow crescent moon hanging low in the sky, and the slight scent of blossoms in the air as her words continued to swirl about in my mind. Even the darkest of nights will eventually give birth to a new day. “Love will keep us safe from death. Love will keep us safe from death.”
Image supplied. Credit Santiago Felipe.
